COMMENTARY: Racial hatred violates the will of God

c. 1997 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest in Winston-Salem, N.C., an author and former Wall Street Journal reporter. E-mail him at journey(at)interpath.com) UNDATED _ The forces of darkness must hate it when the Ku Klux Klan has a rally, as they did here in Winston-Salem, N.C., recently. Had the Klan kept […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest in Winston-Salem, N.C., an author and former Wall Street Journal reporter. E-mail him at journey(at)interpath.com) UNDATED _ The forces of darkness must hate it when the Ku Klux Klan has a rally, as they did here in Winston-Salem, N.C., recently.

Had the Klan kept out of sight, then the bizarre decision by the city’s mayor-elect, Jack Cavanaugh, to visit a Klan-related group and pledge allegiance to the Confederate flag could be dismissed as political naivete. But when Klan members, holding that same flag, shout death to blacks and Jews outside City Hall, the mayor-elect’s behavior has an ominous tone.


Had the Klan kept quiet, then California Gov. Pete Wilson’s speech against affirmative action in the state’s public universities might sound like high-minded philosophy. But when an onlooker in Winston-Salem asks a Klansman why he wears a black robe and he explains that it will help him attack her at night, the high-minded is revealed as racial hatred seeking a lighter robe.

Had the Klan stayed hidden, then the determination of whites in Cleveland to end cross-town busing might sound like concern for little children. But when a Klan member shouts hatred at a confused little black girl being held in her mother’s arms, then the real issue in Cleveland and other cities is exposed for what it is: Many whites hate going to school with blacks.

Had the Klan kept quiet, then the recent war of words in New Jersey over affirmative action in state hiring might come across as a right-minded stand against bureaucratic absurdity. But when the Klan holds a rally, then we hear more clearly the right-wing’s delight in finding an example of absurdity that could be used to freeze blacks out of jobs, the way blacks’ presence in law schools and medical schools is already melting away.

The Ku Klux Klan cuts through the code phrases by which white Americans pursue racial hatred. Racial tensions are tearing apart our nation’s cities, not because we haven’t found the perfect tools to deploy justice, but because many whites simply loathe blacks and want them kept away.

The Klan, at least, is honest in its venom. School board members trying to resegregate schools in the name of little children taking long bus rides look deceitful by comparison.

Let’s be clear about two things: Affirmative action in hiring, integration of schools, strategies to encourage blacks’ presence in the professions _ these steps aren’t about philosophy, they are about justice.

For centuries, blacks in the American colonies and the United States were slaves. For the next century, they were beaten down and kept out of the mainstream. From the beginning, those behaviors by the white majority violated the nation’s most basic principles. They were wrong, and we who benefited from institutionalized hatred have some major repenting to do.


If my child has to take a 90-minute bus ride so that a black child has an opportunity to learn, then so be it. I cannot defend my child’s privileges at someone else’s expense.

Second, racial hatred violates the will of God. Every hate group claims God as its ally. Some major religious groups promote hatred and exclusion as the revealed will of God. They are wrong. Jesus cut through the racial and class barriers of his day.”God has given us a ministry of reconciliation,”wrote the Apostle Paul.

Racial hatred is anathema to God. To put words of hate into God’s mouth is the Liar at work.

When I went to high school in Indianapolis during the 1960s, every white knew how many blacks were in Shortridge High. We knew that blacks went out one set of doors, and we went out another. We knew that a black could never be nominated for Prom Queen. We cheered the blacks who made our basketball team a powerhouse, but we were horrified if a black attended one of our parties.

In the Junior Vaudeville we had one black act and three white acts. My best friend scandalized the community by performing in an integrated skit.

It all seemed natural, and it was all wrong. Dead wrong. I do not want my sons to be formed by that kind of racial hatred.


No matter what political, philosophical and high-minded robe it wears, racial hatred is still an ugly, dark stain on our nation.

MJP END EHRICH

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